Saturday, May 28, 2011

The marathon

I ran a marathon!!! Yeah, I know the timing wasn't the best but when we first started talking about it Brazil was not in the picture. I've wanted to run a marathon for the past 15 years. I don't love running but I loved the idea. So I asked everyone I knew if they wanted to run a marathon with me. Some said yes, most said no but somehow I never actually trained longer than a month before deciding I didn't want to do it anymore.

Last October...

We were at my cousins wedding, and outside the St. George marathon was going on. The runners were coming in and we were about a mile from the finish line. You could see the excitement in their eyes, the determination and the exhaustion. I knew I wanted to do it. So the next day we signed up for the runner's series. It was a guaranteed way to get into the St. George marathon and Drew was going to run it with me. I was so excited.

Novemberish...

Shortly after we signed up we heard about the Huff to Bluff marathon. Drew was so excited he was the first person to sign up. After thinking about training for the St. George marathon in the middle of summer I quickly decided to switch marathons.

January...

A friend asked if I wanted to train for a 5k. I told her about the marathon and quickly convinced her to do it with me. Jordan was on board. She had always wanted to run one also. So we came up with a training program. We started with a long run on Saturday and two 3 mile runs during the week. It wasn't the best training for a marathon but it's what worked for us.

Skip ahead to April and May...

By now we had decided to move to Brazil. Drew had started working in New York and I was in Arizona until the kids finished the school year. This created a little bit of a problem with my training. Thankfully, I was able to find plenty of babysitters to watch the kids for our long runs and I had the gym to use for my short runs. I also had to organize the house for an international move, taxi the kids to various activities and a million other things.

The week before the race...

The movers came. They packed our air shipment. Then the rest of the house. The kids had their last day of school. We drove up to Blanding.

The day of the race...

I was ready. I had trained and felt good. I had had some knee problems but my biggest worry was trying to keep my heart rate down. My goal was just to finish the race. I didn't care about my time. I just wanted to finish.

5:45 am

We picked up Worthy and Kim and headed down to the staring line. It was freezing. I was excited/anxious/scared to death. But I was ready. We met up with Jordan. Took a few pictures.

6:00 am

The gun went off. We were actually running the marathon. It felt good. I ran with Drew and Jordan until mile 6. I knew I was slower than them and I wanted them to leave me. I would finish but I didn't want to slow anyone down. So they went ahead. I made a few new friends.

8:33 am

I was feeling good. I hit the 13.1 sign. I was half way!! I was making good time.

around mile 16

My left knee started to hurt. I had had this problem before but I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem.

mile 18

It felt like my knee popped. It hurt really bad. I started to walk/run. I had no doubt I was going to finish the race I was just hoping I wouldn't be last. I had made a friend by this point and he stayed with me. He had run 14 other marathons and said he didn't care about his time. I felt bad but I enjoyed his company. Talking to him also distracted me from the pain.

mile 23

I started to wonder when this marathon was ever going to end. By this point I was in a lot of pain and it felt like we had gone uphill a lot more than I had planned on.

mile 25

Jordan drove up looking for me. She had finished and won our age group. She was excited and gave me the boost I needed to finish.

12:03

Six hours and three minutes after I started I finished. I was so happy. It felt great to finish. It felt really great to come in and see Drew and give him a big hug. I was so proud of him for finishing. I was also super proud of myself. I never had to run another marathon again. I finally was able to check it off my list. :)

After the race my knee really hurt. I went to the doctor Tuesday and they thought it was a torn meniscus. So they sent me to Cortez, CO for surgery. After the mri they decided I didn't need surgery. I had just overused my knee. It still hurts but it's getting better and I'm super glad I didn't have to have surgery.

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About the Authors

Joaquin

Stella

Isaac

About the Glovers

Made in America, a blend of Utah and Las Vegas, making stops in Washington, D.C., New York City, Westchester County, Madrid, Arizona and most recently Sao Paulo, Brazil . We grow our numbers at major destinations along the way, with Isaac in D.C. and Stella in NYC and Joaquin in Spain.